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Saga of the Simian Samurai

More noise could’ve been made about hip-hop duo Project Polaroid in 2006; West Coast producer TomC3’s gurgling beats matched Kool Keith’s wandering, abstract wordplay like a deftly mixed cocktail. Ex-Organized Konfusion member Prince Po guested on The Original Soundtrack Album of Project Polaroid, and his pairing with TomC3 on Samurai sounds both natural and gruff. Prince Po deals pop-culture one-offs over a spiraling guitar loop on “Choose,” and speeds up his delivery tenfold for the mopey “Land of Perfect.” The backdrops range from gritty and somewhat thin on “Roota to the Toota” to hard-funk on the sexed-up “Candy.” TomC3’s worn sampler and chunky bass lines sounded sharper a year ago, but Saga still marries worthy performances on both ends.